Strong bonds rise from disaster

Louisiana Catholic Charities workers share heartfelt reunion with Albany volunteers who helped after Katrina

Times-Union, November 2, 2006
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
ALBANY, NY -- They came to thank local volunteers for helping victims displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
But what the Southerners kept marveling at was the Northeasterners' graciousness and hospitality.
"The people from Albany are incredible. They've got a lot of that hospitality we're known for," said Deborah Roe, executive director of Catholic Charities in Baton Rouge, La.
Roe and two of her staff members were in Albany this week for a reunion with volunteers and to thank them for their long-term assistance.

For nine months after the devastating hurricane, Roe put to work 52 volunteers from the Capital Region who traveled to Baton Rouge as part of an outreach effort organized by Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
"They held our hand and were willing to do anything that needed to be done," Roe said. "I don't know what we would have done without the people from Albany."
Bishop Howard Hubbard traveled to Baton Rouge in January and distributed $1.4 million that parishioners in the Albany Diocese contributed to aid hurricane relief efforts.
Teams of local volunteers worked in Baton Rouge in three-week rotations. Five of them went back a second time.
They were nurses and social workers put on the front lines to work with displaced people who fled their flooded homes in New Orleans -- often with little else besides the clothes they wore.
"The people from Albany were a sign of hope, and their presence let the people from New Orleans know that someone cared," Roe said. Each day, more than 200 evacuees waited in a line outside the Catholic Charities office in Baton Rouge seeking assistance.
"We were able to bridge the miles and form a deep bond between Catholic Charities of Albany and Baton Rouge," said Sister Maureen Joyce, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of the Albany Diocese.
"It was a good fit because both agencies look at the dignity of people we serve in a similar way," Joyce said.
This week, Joyce and her staff took the Baton Rouge folks on a tour of Albany's historic sites, as well as to Cooperstown and Saratoga Springs. They also treated their guests to an afternoon at a local spa and honored them and local volunteers at a dinner Wednesday at the Italian-American Community Center in Albany.
Roe said the people displaced by Hurricane Katrina continue to need help. Hundreds of people from New Orleans remain stranded in Baton Rouge, still living in trailers supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Baton Rouge Catholic Charities staff has worked with 140,000 hurricane victims and continues to provide mental health services, housing assistance and job training.
Proof of the lasting bond between Albany and Baton Rouge Catholic Charities workers was summed up by local volunteers when asked if they'd return to help.
"They all said they'd go back in a minute if needed," Joyce said.
Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .